


Half an Hour, A Lifetime

by themundaneweirdo



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Asylum, American Horror Story: Freak Show
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Interview, Murder, ahs au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9153274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themundaneweirdo/pseuds/themundaneweirdo
Summary: Lana Winters has landed the interview of her career.Not only is she interviewing the woman who had a child with Jupiter, Florida killer Dandy Mott, but Lana is being invited into her house for tea.And, she thought her year couldn't get any better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love

There she sat, primped with makeup and a spritz of perfume, with a white dress and a pair of crystal earrings. Her hair was red, but faded due to old age, and probably poor keep as a young woman. Pictures of a young boy were scattered around the room, and some of an older gentleman that Lana can only imagine was the same boy, but older. 

"How would you like to start, Mrs. Mott?"

"It's Miss, actually. However you would like, Miss Winters."

Lana leaned back in the beautiful maroon seat, not too much, but just enough to make her seemed comfortable, but not too comfortable. She breathed in deeply, smiled at her camera man and held a thumb up. 

"We're on in 3, 2, 1..."

She smiled brightly at the rolling camera, then tilted her head to the right. 

"Hello, I'm Lana Winters. You may know me from my hit book 'Maniac', or you may have seen my ground breaking reports and interviews."

She laughs lightly, her pride obvious and bright. Lana just couldn't help herself sometimes. 

"Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing a very spectacular woman. You may have heard of her, but if not, you'll definitely know her by the end of this half hour special. Let me introduce, Miss Francesca Mott."

The camera is turned to the slightly older woman. She smiles politely and waves, still so relax in her own chair. She seems tired of this already, and it's only been a few moments. The camera pans out now to capture both women in the chairs, facing each other. 

"Miss Mott is the famous woman who had a child with serial killer Dandy Mott. The case was settled in the early 1950's, not too long after they had began. Dandy Mott, only in this early 20's, had viciously murdered several people, and had almost killed the woman before me." 

She looks directly at Fran with a poor excuse for sympathy. Her hand touched the older woman's knee, and it took all Fran had not to jerk her hand away. Fran hated these interviews, they always tried to make her look like a sad-sack.

"Please, Miss Mott, how did you meet Dandy?"

Fran straightened up then, crossed her legs over the thigh and made a little noise at the back of her throat. She's already told this story over a dozen of times, this one is no different, just a different person after the same answers. 

"Dandy and I met when we were young. Our mothers were close friends, and they had an agreement that we would wed when we became of age. I, for one, didn't care too much for marriage. Not because I didn't love Dandy, I did in some sense, but he didn't care for me, so I saw no point in tying him down with marriage and responsibilities."

Fran pauses, faking a cough and taking a sip of her now cold tea, and gently wiped her mouth before returning to her before posture. 

"My mother and I, we had dinner every Friday and Sunday with them. Dandy's mother, Gloria, she had announced one Sunday afternoon that she and my mother would begin the wedding planning. Dandy didn't take the news too well, as far as I know. Gloria told me he was ecstatic, but I saw how his face dropped every time we were made to sit beside each other at every public event. He hated it."

Lana made a queer face, and it made Fran pause. 

"Well, he had to have cared about you! After all, you have a child with him. You said so yourself, you loved Dandy."

Fran smiled bitterly, looking down at the tan carpet and shaking her head. These interviewers get stupider and stupider every time she meets them. 

"Just because I had feelings for him doesn't mean he returned them. In fact, I think he only tolerated me because I did so openly love him. As for my son, he was born into this world without Dandy, and everyone knows that not all children are made from love."

Lana leaned back, her finger running along her neck, trying to act like she's processing all this like it's new information. She already knew all this, she's read and watched all interviews about Francesca Mott. 

"Well, if your child wasn't made of love, what was he made of?"

Fran is a little surprised at how swift Lana is being, most of them are stupid and perverts. 

"The only way I could get Dandy to understand how much I cared for him was showing him."

This is the part that Fran hated, in every interview she choked up and holds back profanities. She took a breath and continued.

"A few weeks before he was killed, before I had known what he had done or planned to do, I went to check on him. I heard from a few people that Gloria hadn't been home in a while, and I knew he was alone. Long story short, we fought; I screamed at him, he screamed right back. Somehow, I really don't know how we managed, but we ended up in bed. We weren't protected, so I wasn't really shocked when I found out I was pregnant."

Here it comes, the hard part, the only time she gets chocked up. Held back tears, closed her mouth for a few seconds to compose herself. There, it's better.

"The last thing I said to him was that I love him. But, he didn't say it back; he just pulled the sheets up and told me to get out."

The room was quiet then, Fran could even hear the camera man breathing too hard. Lana was silenced, at least for a few moments. Didn't last long.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Mott. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."

Fran laughed then, didn't bother hiding the acute sorrow in her behavior. She does this to herself, she really does. They didn't ask what her last words were, but of course, she spills her guts anyway. 

"Anyway. Uh... After Dandy was murdered, I bought the house, and I legally changed my last name to Mott. It only seemed right, for my child to bare his fathers last name. With the house came an inheritance, but I think it was pity money. Poor single mother, an unwedded widow; I can't imagine how pitiful I must've looked."

Lana gave her a tissue, and Fran realized she was shedding tears. Dammit, she always does this, too. The tears, the sorrow sob story, she gives the world what they want. 

"When I had Otto, I had almost forgotten about Dandy. My son, my beautiful baby was the love of my life then. He took up most of my time, and I tried my best not to spoil him like Gloria had Dandy. He grew up, slowly but surely, and he looks like Dandy, as I was expecting. He never had my hair or eyes. But, thank God, he doesn't have Dandy's behavior."

Lana looked confused, slowly piecing the parts together, and the she finally got the full picture now. Of course, her son would be a grown man now. How stupid she is. 

"He's an adult now, isn't he? Otto, is it?"

"Yes, Otto Edward Mott. He's 28 now, and even now, he still checks up on me, cares for me like Dandy never could." 

The rest of the interview was just small talk, and Fran doesn't remember most of it. Lana just kept things simple, and Fran was grateful for that. 

It ended with a few words, and Fran realized she had basically told her life story, once again, for the world to know. It really hits her, and she hates it afterward, but it's over now. 

"I'm Lana Winters, and this has been Half an Hour, A Lifetime."

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Dandy's son as Milo Ventimiglia. Look him up!


End file.
